White River Clean-Up

2014 Group Photo of 425 volunteers

The 11th Annual White River Cleanup was a great success! Thanks to the over 230 volunteers who showed up to clean over 15 miles of river! We removed 26 tires and 4,460 lbs of trash and debris. Thank you to our great partners: Muncie-Delaware Clean and Beautiful, Ball State University Freshman Connections, Minnetrista, EmComm ECI, the Town of Yorktown, Canoe Country, Muncie Parks Dept, Flatland Resources, Muncie Sanitary District’s Sanitation Dept and Kendon of Muncie Bridgestone America.

Save the date for our 12th annual for Saturday, September 15th 2018 at Westside Park.

Volunteers are encouraged to dress appropriately by wearing clothes that can get dirty and wet. Please bring gloves if you have them.

Registration will start at 8a, with freelance canoe and kayakers leaving for the western portion of River at 8:30a. All other volunteers will be bussed to their locations by 9a. Headquarters for the cleanup will be at Westside Park in Muncie, off of White River Boulevard between Tillotson Street bridge and Nichols Street Bridge. We will be meeting the shelters furthest to the west.

The White River Cleanup has been responsible for removing over 85,000 pounds of trash and 600+ tires from our beautiful river in the past 8 years. It has drawn well over 2,425 volunteers over the years, with last year bringing over 425 volunteers to Westside Park.

The White River Cleanup happens every year in September and is a statewide public service event stretching most of the entirety of the White River. Many counties including Delaware, Hamilton, Monroe, Madison and Morgan Counties participate in cleaning up the White River on or near the same date in September. People come together from all communities to help clean the White River and thousands of pounds of trash are removed every year including large amounts of tires.

In Delaware County alone, close to 72,000 pounds of trash and nearly 500+ tires have been pulled from the White River! The Clean-up has also brought close to 2,000 volunteers from the local community together to participate in the past 6 years. The White River Clean-Up covers close to 15 miles of river from the Old Indiana Steel and Wire Plant all the way to Canoe Country in Daleville.

Volunteers walk the bank, river, and land where possible removing debris from and around the river. When that is not possible, volunteers use canoes to navigate through the water filling them up along the way with the debris they find.